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Sanford
Children's Hospital

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As all parents will tell you, a child’s imagination switch hardly ever seems to be off. The same goes true at our house. Our oldest, who is 4, and her younger twin brothers, 3, have been going through the “Superhero phase” of their childhood. After baths their Dad would either tie their towel or their blankets by the corners around their necks – and they were off! Their little legs churning throughout the house, hard telling what adventure their “capes” were taking them on at that particular moment.

The older our children become, the more we try to carve out individual time and space for each one. One of the ways our oldest has her “Daddy time” is when Mommy puts the boys to bed. They dive into cartoons that depict Superheroes and end the night with a princess storybook. She picked up on the ideals the cartoons were trying to convey of good vs. evil, and in a 4-year-olds eyes, all the wonder and awe the good Superheroes had with their capes.

One day, our daughter announced she would like a “Superhero-Princess Cape”. She enlisted the help of my sister, and together they set out to make the very first Wonder Capes for her and her brothers. After a few trial and errors, I had three very special Superheroes who were as proud as could be with their capes! We couldn’t go anywhere without them. And everywhere we went, people would inquire about their capes. This has turned into hundreds of capes for friends, family, and charities.

This past March, our oldest became ill, and she was checked into the brand-new Sanford Children’s Hospital, here in Sioux Falls, SD. The Doctors believed she caught a double virus, which had her in the hospital for a long weekend to receive IV fluids. Our daughter requested two things be brought to her hospital room: her special blanket and her Wonder Cape. On the third day of her stay, she was feeling well enough to want to “flit” around the hospital hallways with her Wonder Cape. She was given the okay to leave her room, and off she went!

Each day about the same time, the Nursing staff and parents would get the patients up to walk around the circular hallways of the hospital. Before I knew it, our daughter and the other children started walking faster and faster, giggling, and taking turns wearing the Wonder Cape. We as parents, and the Nursing staff, stopped what we were doing and watched in wonder as the kids were just being kids – playing and laughing together. Tears came to parents’ eyes, as they could not remember their child giggling or having fun. No one cared that another child might have lacked hair, had a mask, or an IV pole – they were too busy having fun, pretending to act out one scenario after another.

Why “Wonder Capes”? Because all children are Wonderful. Why should it matter if your child is running the hallways at home or in the hospital? Every child deserves a Wonder Cape. And when our daughter’s Wonder Cape became a comfort to her in the hospital, the idea of the Comfort Cape was formed. Grandma, with all her years of Nursing experience, had terrific ideas for the Comfort Cape – something they could snuggle with, be soft to the touch, and keep them warm. Whatever they needed or wanted it to do.

As a parent now, I look back at my own childhood, and some of my best memories are doing hands on things with my parents. We try to do this with our children. All the fabrics have been picked by them; they like to dictate the color choices and combinations. And the excitement in their eyes when a cape is finished makes it all worth the many hours of sewing and not sleeping. As stated before, the imagination never stops, which inspires the need for new Wonder Capes around here quite frequently …